Couple, police clash over ricin incident

Roger Bergendorff's crime in February 2008 was major news in Las Vegas and worldwide, because of initial fears he was a domestic terrorist. He claimed he made the deadly toxin ricin because he thought having it would protect him.
Instead, it put him in the hospital in a coma.

When he came out of the coma, he was indicted and pleaded guilty to possession of ricin and unregistered firearms. He's scheduled to get out of a federal minimum-security prison May 3 after a 42-month prison sentence.

Jim Mitchell, the first police officer to enter Bergendorff's hotel room, has developed vocal chord problems that make it hard for him to breathe. The officer, who used to run up to 12 miles a week, has difficulty mowing their lawn, wife Regina said.

Since the incident, the couple have worked unsuccessfully to get Jim's illness covered by worker's compensation.

The man who at least partially blocked that? Dr. Joe Heck, who, besides being a GOP congressional candidate, evaluates worker's compensation claims for the police department. After Heck's medical evaluation and recommendation, the officer's claim was rejected in 2008.

The denial is being appealed. If it's worker's comp, that guarantees treatment is fully covered after he retires.

The Mitchells are certain his current symptoms are because of exposure to the highly poisonous ricin when he entered Bergendorff's room. The twist is that the Metropolitan Police Department absolutely contends Mitchell was never exposed to ricin.

On Feb. 14, 2008, Bergendorff was hospitalized. On Feb. 26, the police were called by the manager of the Extended Stay America at 4270 S. Valley View Blvd. She entered room 3700 to take inventory and saw guns. Mitchell responded about 11 p.m.

He saw the guns and books on how to make poison and suspected poison was in the room. At 3:30 a.m., a response team searched the room and told Mitchell no contaminants were found.

Police insist no ricin was found during the search, thus Mitchell couldn't have been contaminated by ricin.

Except, two days later, a cousin clearing out Bergendorff's things from the room brought vials of ricin to the hotel front desk, saying he found them in the room, with castor beans, a beaker and hypodermic needles.

So the ricin was not in the room Feb. 26 but was found in the room Feb. 28? Something doesn't jibe.

Suddenly, decontamination was required of others, including the hotel manager and other officers. But not Mitchell. His patrol car and briefcase were tested. The evidence vault where the guns were stored was tested. The Southwest Area Command Center was tested. All were negative for ricin, according to police.

Jim Mitchell's shoes and uniform, the ones he was wearing when he got on his hands and knees during his search of the room and wore for three days afterward? Well, they weren't tested.

Mitchell became the forgotten man.

Little is known about ricin exposure. But death or symptoms usually occur within three to five days. On March 7, 2008, Mitchell started wheezing and coughing. At first, he thought it was his asthma, but soon he was convinced it was the ricin exposure the department insisted he never had. He went from being a healthy man to one wheezing and coughing who can't run.

Mitchell, 56, now works in the detective bureau and hit his 30-year mark in law enforcement in January, so he could retire. But he keeps working, partly because he wants to win his worker's compensation claim so he'll be fully covered in retirement.

Roger Bergendorff walks free in another six months.

Jim and Regina Mitchell live forever with their absolute conviction he was exposed to ricin and that's the root cause of his health problems.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.